Nothing Sacred
by zeldahearts1337
Summary: Lionel Adams is your typical London child. Until his family is brutally murdered, shattering his mind forever...maybe. R&R please! Sorry folks, back on Hiatus.
1. Prologue to Madness

Prologue to Madness

A young boy sat on the floor of a parlor. His hair was a sandy blond, and his eyes were piercing grey.  
"Take that!" he yelled triumphantly as he continued a mock battle with his tin soldiers. "Take that Ganondorf! I will free the lovely Princess!" The boy's eyes still sparkled with the innocence of imagination.

He then stopped. He turned to the window, which was now rattling violently. Listening to his instincts and the desperate cries of his imaginary friends (and even foes), he got into a nearby cabinet, and hid there. He knew it had a almost unnoticeable peep-hole, and he would be hidden from sight.

The window cracked open, and two ruffians walked in. The boy shrank back, but his eye remained glued to the peep-hole. They nodded at each other, and began to ransack the place, stealing everything they could fit in their bags.

"Lionel? Lionel, what _are_ you doing in there?"

Oh no, Lionel thought, Mother, please, don't come in, **don't come in!** He watched in horror as his mother, with his 6-year-old sister Eliza in tow, walked into the parlor, and screamed. Lionel bit his lip bloody to prevent himself from screaming when the thieves pulled out knives. Then his father rushed in, armed only with the morning newspaper. RUN! Lionel thought, RUN OUT OF HERE!

All Lionel could do was it there as the marauders murdered his family right before his eyes. He tried to peel himself away from the only window in his wretched prison, but he couldn't. The screams that penetrated the wood deafened Lionel to his thoughts.

After minutes that felt like forever, the thieves left, and the shattered 8 year old Lionel walked out of the cabinet.

"Mum? Dad? Eliza?" He staggered over to the unrecognizable, bloody bodies of his family. He grasped his father's bloodied hand and shook it. "Come on, wake up Dad, it's time to save Hyrule!" he muttered. He put on his father's blood splattered, dark green trench-coat and stood, insanely muttering "Come on everyone! It's time to play! It's time to get up now!" His grin was forced, then he realized there was blood all over his coat. He retched, and threw up onto the already ruined Persian carpet. "Please... Make it stop! No more blood! No more blood!" he began to mutter in a high-pitched voice, curling up in side the coat and near his family.

His left hand curled gently around a small tin soldier.

* * *

The Police arrived an hour or two later, finding Lionel Adams beyond help, and insane.

They treated some of Lionel's minor bruising at Littlemore Infirmary, though most people were busy with the still burned Alice Liddell, who was kicking and screaming as they changed her bandages so she could be transferred to a asylum.

Lionel was far more placid, but when he saw blood or anything sharp he recoiled, clawed, and shrieked like a caged animal. "NO MORE! PLEASE!"

The same day, only minutes apart, Lionel and Alice were admitted into Rutledge Asylum.

Into madness.


	2. Back Into His Mind

Back Into His Mind

_10 years later..._

A young boy sat on the floor, moonlight streaking through the bars in the window of his "room" in the asylum, illuminating a small portion of space around him. His hair was a sandy blond, and his eyes were piercing grey. There was a small necklace that held a curious symbol: Ω, Omega, the letter of endings.

Lionel Adams looked hopeless. His eyes stared blankly at the tin soldier in his hands, which instinctively curled tighter around it.

"Poor boy, been here ten years and hasn't gotten any better. Just like that Alice girl. Suppose they'll both die here." a passerby said. Lionel didn't even twitch at the words, and continued to stare in his catatonic state.

"Lionel ..." a raspy voice began. Lionel blinked slowly. The tin soldier turned in his hand of it's own accord and yelled "Save us Lionel!" Lionel dropped the thing, as he fell down.

down.

down.

down.

Into the place he had never seen once in ten years.

His Victorian clothes melted away, becoming a green belted tunic, a floppy green cap, white leggings, and leather gauntlets, all vaguely splattered with dried blood. His hair brightened to the luster of gold, grey eyes became pure blue, ears lengthened to a point. His necklace remained, but lost it's tarnished pallor.  
And then he gently landed, in the middle of a forest. The 18 year old looked around at the strange surroundings. He was used to the cold grey interior of Rutledge Asylum, not the vibrant shades of green and brown all around.  
"Hee hee hee! So glad to see you're back Lionel!" A high-pitched female voice said. Lionel gasped and looked around, not used to such interaction.

A imp, black and white with orange hair, red eyes, a weird mask covering half her face, appeared and smiled. Lionel gasped again and fell back onto the grassy, leaf-strewn ground. The creature laughed "Don't you remember me?" Lionel stared at the thing, scared out of his wits. His fingers gripped at the grass in fear. Then he remembered. Years ago, mock adventures in the imaginary land of Hyrule. Before insanity. Before Rutledge.

"M-Midna? What...?" He looked around the forest again, standing up. Something was different; the sky was grey, the shadows more menacing.

"Hyrule's changed, little hero." Midna smirked again "It's not quite how you remember it." The imp then floated over to a sword in a pedestal, and whirled around it, "It is time to take up the blade again."

Lionel, until this point calm as a newborn, recoiled and hissed

"You're **NOT **making me hold that gods-forsaken, vile thing!" He found it harder to suppress the bile that rose in his mouth. Midna frowned.

"The Lionel I knew would pick up the sword without hesitation."

"NO! I won't even go near it!" Lionel pouted like a child, but inside was the horrid memories he'd tried to suppress. _**Eliza, barely six, bloodied and gored; Mother, throat ripped open, eyes stuck in a nameless scream; Father, knife sticking out of his chest like a macabre beacon.**_

"Fine, maybe you will listen to them..." Midna sighed. She snapped her fingers; in her place, a few monsters appeared.

Lionel froze.

The monsters grew closer, blood lust in their eyes.

Run idiot, run! his body screamed, but he sat there still.

A deer in headlights.

One of the creatures stroked his face with a mangled claw, leaving a small cut.

This is just a dream, I can't get hurt, **I can't get hurt**.

Then more claws ripped open his chest, and Lionel screamed. The trauma of bloodshed tainting his mind even more. Pain and agony rippled all over his body. Frantic, he ran from the fiends. Yet he knew, all the running in the world can't save you. Fearful, he reached for the sword-

but he couldn't grasp the hilt. He didn't want to be as evil as the murderers that killed his family.

At least, not until one of the creatures stabbed him in the back, once more allowing fresh blood to grace it's claws. Letting out a bellow of rage, Lionel grabbed the blade, forced it out of it's prison, and slashed and hacked at the monsters until they were dead.

Lionel panted heavily, retching from the sight of such carnage. Midna appeared by his side,

"See? Was that really so hard?"

Lionel glared at her, his vibrant blue eyes worse than the chill of death.

"Give me **one** reason I shouldn't strangle you." he growled.

Midna shrieked with annoyance "We have bigger problems, Lionel! It doesn't matter how much blood is spilled on the ground because Hyrule is being ruled by a tyrant, and it's All. Your. **Fault**!"

Lionel stood there. Ruled by a tyrant? How can that be? He looked at the short sword in his hand: the hilt was a deep indigo with a bright yellow gem in the center. The blade glowed faintly silver, permanently bloodied, and had a engraving of the vaguely familiar triangles of the holy relic known as the Triforce (his own invention: a artifact that could grant any wish). His reflection in the Blade of Evil's Bane looked confident enough, but he was really lost.

"Quit staring at your sword like a lost child! People are suffering from your madness!" Lionel swallowed at Midna's painful words. He then sheathed the short Master Sword, and began walking calmly into the rest of the Lost Woods saying

"I-I'll get on it. I'll save Hyrule again, and perhaps we can play like we used to. Maybe I'll... Maybe I'll become sane again."

And thus, Lionel began his long quest to end his insanity.


	3. Across the Vibrant Pain

Across The Vibrant Pain

A young boy walked along a worn forest path. Occasionally swinging his sword and quickly killing a monster. Every time he struck, he shivered with some unspeakable pain. The path never cleared of nightmarish images, tormenting him by forcing his hand.  
"Oh no..." he gasped. It was the Kokiri Village he'd visited so many times before, but the whole thing was withered, sickly. There were wrinkled, half-tree-half humans scattered sparsely among the rotted stump houses. One of them looked up, and upon seeing Lionel let out gargled gasp of it's own,  
"Link...! Everyone, Link has returned at last...!"  
Lionel looked for Midna, but she wasn't there. He panicked as the half-rotted Kokiri staggered to him joyfully crying the name "Link!" over and over again.  
"I-I'm not Link! I-it's Lionel...!" He said hurriedly, hoping no one would get their feelings hurt.

Another mangled Kokiri approached, silencing the rest. It was not quite as rotted as the others, with a few tufts of red hair and a single, electric blue eye.

"Yes, I do remember the name being Lionel. 'Tis nice to see you again, friend." Lionel recognized the voice, scratched with age as it was,  
"**Mido?**" The shriveled Kokiri smiled, and nodded his head, "Nearing death makes one mature, does it not? My brethren befall the same fate, although to the Great Deku Tree's and my misfortune, do not realize it. Still, 'tis joyful that you have come back before we pass on." Lionel was horrified by what had happened to his cherished friends. But remained silent. "If you're wondering why we called you Link, 'tis because our memories have shattered. We can't remember much, only what leaves the biggest impact." Mido continued.

Lionel then noticed something funny about Mido's other eye; it looked like it was made of bark. In fact, the boy had a more tree-like, slow and steady pace now. Lionel distinctly remembered that Mido was **very** impatient. There was nothing he could compare to the satisfaction of the wind rushing past your face while you picked up speed.

"What happened to me? I'd ask the same of you, but I guess me first." Mido's smile vanished, and Lionel shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't know how to get back here after... after-"

"The murder? Yes, Lionel, we all sensed it. There was one cacophonous clash as your mind shattered. That was also when the Taint came. Come, I'll take you to the Great Deku Tree while I explain." with those words, Mido started hobbling over to the path to the Great Deku Tree's glen.

"See?" Midna said as she appeared out of Lionel's shadow, causing him to jump, "You aren't the only person suffering." and she disappeared.

Lionel took another look around, painfully aware it was his fault.

He actually wished he was back at Rutledge, blissfully unaware of it all.

Then he remembered the warden's nephews. The sick bastards who never left anyone alone, and were never caught doing anything that wasn't degrading to the asylum residents. He was enraged, remembering how many times they'd picked on him. There was also that other girl across the hall they almost never stopped tormenting. He did not know her name, but he felt her suffering.

"Are you coming, Lionel?" Mido was smiling again, a brighter twinkle in his eye. Lionel nodded, and hurried over to Mido. Mido began his tirade again, "The Taint came and ruined everything. The fields we played in so long ago, now nothing but barren soil and rock. Hyrule Castle and Castle Town stand in piles of rubble. It was all because of your mind was too young for such trauma. The Taint seeped into our village, and into the Great Deku Tree. We clamored for a cure to our rotting bodies, but there was none. Ah, here we are." The Great Deku Tree's glen was as rancid as the rest of the precious haven. The corpse of a once mighty tree stood in the centre and had sap slowly pouring out of the remains of a face-like shape. The tree's branches were creaking and groaning, begging for a release.

Mido touched the sickly bark, his face pained "The Great Deku Tree didn't have long to live. The Taint spread in his system too fast. So he chose a younger, more youthful body to inhabit until Hyrule was prosperous again." Lionel stared at Mido, puzzle pieces lining up in his head.

"That body... It was yours, wasn't it?" he said quietly. Mido nodded, "I can feel the Great Deku Tree's pain. But I also have access to his limitless wisdom. He was right about there being no cure, we will rot away, ceasing to exist. Unless..." Mido turned back to Lionel, and pointed a crippled, twiggy finger at him,

"You defeat the tyrant who promotes your mind's corruption, and restore this country's rightful state."


	4. A Duty to the Dead

A Duty to the Dead

A young boy stood in front of the remains of a mighty tree. A younger (or was it older?) boy pointing a finger at him.

"Me?" Lionel asked, confused. Mido nodded.

"Yes you. Remember this?" Mido grabbed Lionel's left hand. Upon it was a image of the Triforce, glowing faintly. The Triforce of Courage in the right corner was highlighted. "The day you accepted this sacred object was the day you made a promise to us! A promise to help whenever needed!" Mido relinquished his grasp, collecting his thoughts. He took a deep breath.

He pulled out a smaller object: a deep green emerald, with a band of gold wrapping around it. The only vibrant thing that was left of the Kokiri Forest and Lost Woods, collectively referred to as Faron Province. Lionel's eyes widened

"You can't Mido! What about everyone else?"

The Kokiri sadly smiled. "If you are willing to restore Hyrule and your sanity, then it's a worthy sacrifice." Mido said as he gently placed the shimmering stone in Lionel's palm.

The sickly forest finally started to wither, leaves falling in a blizzard. Lionel gaped at the brittle twirls of brown and tan, tears springing to his eyes. He watched helplessly as Mido rotted right before his eyes, mouthing... something. It was only when Mido was a decayed mass did he realize that his friend was saying goodbye.

"Mido..." he sobbed. The Kokiri Emerald thumped softly onto the ground, followed by Lionel falling onto his knees crying hysterically.

Midna silently appeared next to Lionel, but he didn't notice.

"Why?"

he asked, "Why is such a haven so twisted?" Midna looked away, without an answer. She gently bent over, picked up the shimmering emerald, and once again pressed it into Lionel's hand.

"If you press on, you can find out..."

she told him gently. Lionel sniffled like a child.

"It hurts." he said quietly, "Every sword-slash, every sacrifice for a cause I'm not willing to do. It hurts me, to know the horrible job I'm doing."

Minda briefly hugged Lionel. "Death Mountain is next... there's nothing to do here. We need the stones to open the path to the Tyrant."

Lionel stood, but before Midna dispersed into his shadow he asked a question that nagged at his memory.

"Midna... Who is this Tyrant...?"

She disappeared, never answering the question.

Lionel's face was placid as he walked through the rotted forest. Every now and then, he'd kill a creature before he had the chance to get a clear look. I wonder... how that girl is doing... he thought after a good few hours trek.

* * *

"Lionel, what is the name of your mother?" the psychologist asked plainly. The teen lying down on a small operating table didn't respond, continuing to stare at nothing with eyes that could have belonged to a blind man. Not even a blink. The psychologist sighed, fearing another failure. Then Lionel spoke

"Dodongos dislike smoke, you know."

It was in a bit of a sing-song voice, and a little prideful, like a child who felt like they knew everything.

"E-excuse me, but what was that?" The psychologist leaned in, his spectacles drooping lower on his nose.

Just as sudden, Lionel's hands grabbed the paper and pen the psychologist was holding and sketched something.

It looked massive and reptilian, with a wide maw that was spewing fire. Over to the side, a young man had a shield bared to deflect the flames. The man looked quite like Lionel, but he held a better air of sanity and confidence. That... and his ears were pointed.

"Well, it's a start..."


	5. Flames of Love and Hate

A young boy climbed a steep cliff arduously. Lionel strained as he climbed Death Mountain's steep surface.

"Midna." he grunted, "Couldn't we just, you know-" his hand slipped "Ack!-Warp to the top?" The imp partially melted out of his shadow, with an irritated look.

"Lionel! I already explained this! The Tyrant is monitoring every portal I have access to! It's very easy to cut off one, even when there's, say, **you** or **me** in it!"

Midna disappeared in a huff. Lionel, meanwhile, quickly brought his body into a small crevice, right before there was another crashing of boulders down the cliff.

He winced, seeing the rocks crush the pursuing Moblins without a drop of mercy. Or bloodless carnage for that matter.

His eyes couldn't draw away from the smear of blood and organs. Lionel's breathing and heart rate either plummeted or raced: he couldn't tell. Nausea overcame every sense.

"Tiinol, rel yall rouyght?" some garbled voice asked.

Lionel curled up; sweating, panting, his body going into shock. Trauma and fear sent his body in racking spasms. So many horrid images flooded his mind's eye.

"Tiinol! Tiinol!" The voice screeched. Lionel blinked, realizing that he couldn't understand Midna. He weakly raised his head.

"What are you saying, Midna?"

Midna spluttered, then said "Tiinol, yall kems do'se nodake."

Lionel stared vacantly at the red earth of Death Mountain.

If he couldn't understand Hylian, he'd never make it. He bit his lip, trying to remember how the Hylian language was understood and spoken.

"K-kodo yall nenwi Lishg?" he stammered.

"Onoa." Midna replied lamely. "Witt ha stha?"

Lionel barely remembered Hylian, and he couldn't teach Midna English. He took a deep breath. And closed his eyes.

"This is my mind." he began, "Stha ha dym nim." his eyes opened again, glowing gray with innate and arcane magic. "I am in control." his Triforce piece started resonating with a dull drone. "Tri co na lomin."

A breeze rushed past both of them. A curious one that carried feelings instead of heat or cold.

"Tiinol? Rel yall... okay?" Midna gently grasped Lionel's shoulder.

"Midna? Can you understand me?" he whispered back.

"Yes," she nodded her head. "What were you saying? I couldn't understand a thing!"

He sighed in relief, laying still on the ground.

"Are you dying or something?" Midna demanded. Lionel laughed weakly. It then grew into a wild, insane laughter while tears of relief poured out of his eyes. "It worked! It worked!"

Midna grimaced "And I thought you were remotely sane..."

Lionel burst into another fit of wild laughter, except this time it sounded more like gasping sobs

"That's the freaking problem Midna!" Lionel pushed himself up and leaned against the wall, whispering "I'm not...!" he cried for a few more minutes, uttering over and over "I'm not...!" like some madness mantra.

Midna watched as Lionel broke down, gasping and shuddering with tears, yet laughing. He was absolutely broken again, and Midna could feel the tremors as his mind became so close to shattering for good.

"LIONEL! Get a grip you big baby!" She snapped.

Lionel's laughter died slowly, fading to chuckles, then sobs. The tremors did the same. Midna sighed and placed a hand on Lionel's shoulder "Are you gonna breakdown in every new place we go to or what?"

Lionel cracked a smile "Gosh Midna, do you always have to be so blunt?" He shakily stood, and peered out of the small crevice. He nodded his head moments late, resuming his climb.

He still had a long way to go after all.

* * *

So after practically forever on Hiatus, I've decided to get back on the ball for this. Though keep in mind updating still might take awhile. Oh, and you won't believe what listening to the Alice: Madness Returns main theme can do for one's dried well of inspiration XD


End file.
